Tell Your Friends You Love Them (Wednesday Wonderings)

So, the other week I wrote about how I’ve started to tell my friends that I am proud of them. You can read that piece here. But this week, let’s step things up a bit. Because I think that our friendships can and should be some of the most enriching relationships in our lives.

Generally though, it’s not so easy to share such vulnerability. But I think it’s crucial for our connections and for living authentically.

I think you’ll be surprised of the impact if you tell a friend that you love them, or are told by a friend, that you are loved. It can be beautiful!

I’m talking about simple, good old fashioned friendships here, not the situationship or friends with benefits type scenarios that some people have. Because getting caught up in the erotic intimacy of those adds a different dimension.

Considering that it’s risky business to expect just one person, (typically a partner), to fulfil all of our needs, building and maintaining friendships is crucial for our emotional and physical wellbeing.

With this in mind, now as an adult, I also don’t ascribe to the notion of having a “best friend” either. I think it’s important and healthy to have multiple friendships with different people that can provide us with different things. It can make for too much pressure, which is unhealthy, if we put all of our eggs into one basket and expect just one friend to do all of the things for us, a bit like expecting a partner to do it all.

And given the power of social media these days, it feels important to mention and normalise that some of my most favourite people live in my phone. Some of these wonderful, beautiful friends I have yet to meet in person, both nationally and internationally and yet despite this, I can tell you that they are much loved by me and they love me too.

Navigating friendships in adulthood can be hard, because life is pulling us in so many directions, with so many responsibilities, but knowing you have even just a couple of people to call on to share some exciting news, or to say when things feel overwhelming, can make all of the difference. And I hope the same for you too.

If you haven’t checked out Rupi Kaur’s poetry, please do! I love the piece below and it’s certainly true for me.

Kelly Taylor